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PolitiFact 'Lie of the Year': 'If you like your healthcare plan you can keep it'

By Dylan Byers

12/12/13 04:44 PM EST

The fact-checking organization PolitiFact declared President Barack Obama's "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it" as the "Lie of the Year" on Thursday.

"It was a catchy political pitch and a chance to calm nerves about his dramatic and complicated plan to bring historic change to America’s health insurance system," the editors of the Tampa Bay Times side project wrote in their announcement. "But the promise was impossible to keep."

The oft-repeated promise came under intense criticism after NBC News reported in late October that at least half of the approximately 14 million Americans with individual insurance were set to have their health plans shut down by insurers under Obamacare. Obama ultimately gave in to the pressure and changed the law to fulfill the promise in mid-November.

Announcing the decision on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," PolitiFact editor Angie Drobnic Holan said the political significance of the remark, which Obama made on at least 37 different occasions, was a key factor in their decision.

Runners-up for Lie of the Year included statements from Ann Coulter, Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sen. Ted Cruz.